A stick shift is a type of car that you drive by changing gears yourself instead of the car doing it for you. It can be tricky to learn at first, but many people enjoy it.
A four-cylinder engine has four parts where fuel and air mix and burn to create power. These engines are usually smaller and more fuel-efficient than larger ones.
'Stick time' means how much time someone has spent driving a car, especially one that requires changing gears manually. It shows how experienced the driver is with that type of car.
Full synthetic oil is a special kind of oil for your car's engine that helps it run better and last longer. It’s made from man-made materials and works better than regular oil, especially in extreme temperatures.
The timing chain is a part of the engine that helps keep everything working together properly. If it wears out, it can cause problems with how the engine runs, so it sometimes needs to be replaced.
Popping the clutch is a way to start a car that has a manual transmission when the engine won't start normally. You roll the car down a hill, put it in gear, and let go of the clutch to start the engine.
The Audi A4 is a fancy small car that is fun to drive and has a lot of nice features inside. It's a good option for people who want something more upscale than a regular car.
The Cadillac Escalade V Series is a luxury SUV that offers a powerful engine and lots of features. It's designed for families who want both space and performance in their vehicle.
ESV means 'Extended Stretch Vehicle'. It's a bigger version of an SUV that has more room inside for passengers and cargo, making it great for families or anyone who needs to carry a lot of stuff.
Car
Cadillac V-Series
The Cadillac V-Series is a line of fast and powerful cars made by Cadillac. They are designed to be more exciting to drive than regular Cadillac cars.
Captain's chairs are special seats in cars that are like individual chairs instead of a long bench. They are usually more comfortable and have extra features like armrests.
The V-Series is a special line of high-performance cars made by Cadillac. They are designed to be faster and handle better than regular Cadillac models.
The Shelby Cobra is a famous sports car from the 1960s, known for being fast and stylish. It's a favorite among car lovers and is often sought after by collectors.
Car
Backdraft Racing
Backdraft Racing makes replica cars that look like the classic Shelby Cobra. They aim to give you the experience of driving a classic car with some modern upgrades.
A four-speed means the car has four different settings for how fast it can go. It helps the car run well, but it's usually not as fast as five-speed cars.
The Cobra is a special version of the Ford Mustang that is designed to be faster and more powerful than the regular Mustang. It's a favorite among car enthusiasts.
LIVE
Hey, welcome to the pilot episode of To All The Cars I've Loved Before.
This is the conversation where American history and automotive history meet your history.
Thanks for joining.
Make sure to check us out online at carslove.com.
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Check out the intake form.
Join the conversation.
Join the millions of Americans who've never heard of us and the dozens of Americans who
might want to be involved on potential guest lists moving forward.
My name is Chris.
This is Doug, and welcome into the pilot episode.
We've invited a great personal friend and ally of the show, Devin, to chat with us
a bit about meaningful cars in his life.
A lot of times, this might be the first few cars you've had in your world, again, sort
of open to the level of engagement.
So, Devin, welcome.
Good afternoon.
How are you?
I'm doing great.
Thanks for inviting me.
Hey, thanks for it.
Thanks for being here, bud.
So, Doug, by way of introduction, did you want to bring Devin into what we're trying
to do here in this initial episode?
Sure.
Yeah, Devin, just as Chris said, we're looking to hear about significant cars in
your life.
Really, three.
It could be two.
It could be one, how you came to acquire them, what blew you away about them, what you
hated, what you could change.
If you could go back and get that car again, knowing what you know now, do you miss the
car?
How you came to acquire it, probably repeat, was it a hand me down?
So, this wouldn't really count as your parents loaning you are, but you're a first car.
If it meant something to him, it may.
Yeah.
You're right.
You're right.
It might be, it could be, your dad had a 1959 Oldsmobile, and so, you always wanted,
you loved that car, you wish he had never sold it, you were a little kid when he got
rid of it, and you went and bought one yourself years later.
But I know you're a bit of a car connoisseur, so maybe just do an introduction, your
name, where you grew up, where you live now, and go from there.
If you think about your, we know this is unscripted, but you're, start with a car that was significant
to you.
First car is easy.
All right.
That I can definitely do.
All right.
Well, my name is Devin Henderson.
I am originally from Effingham, Illinois, small town in rural Illinois, population
12,000.
There was like nothing there.
So I currently live in Aldi, Virginia, and I absolutely love it.
So talking about cars, the first thing that came to mind, my first car, my parents
not believe in handouts, so I had to work and save up and buy this car.
So it meant a lot to me.
I had a 98 Mazda 626, and I love that thing.
It was a five-speed, and when I bought it, I had no idea how to drive a stick at all.
Growing up, yeah, it was an adventure.
My father actually taught me how to drive the stick in the dealerships parking lot.
So you didn't learn on his car that was a stick?
This was totally the, okay, fantastic.
Yep.
Yep.
Yep.
It was fun.
I drove my car for like 12 years, and I mean, I have so many great memories in that thing.
It had a little four-cylinder 2.0, but when I got rid of that car, it had 286,000 miles
on it.
I mean, I rode that thing everywhere.
I commuted to college the first couple of years, and so I've got a lot of stick
time, literally, stick time on my car.
How did the car age?
286,000 miles is kind of an astounding amount of miles to put on the car.
How did you achieve that?
Did you baby the car?
Did you take care of it?
Did you do the work yourself?
I did some of the work myself, but I put full synthetic oil in it.
I went to auto shop, and I learned a lot about cars, and I was like, all right,
I'm going to do this right.
I got the recommended maintenance done on it.
The timing chain replaced that 100,000 miles, and a few things, but with it being
a stick shift, it was interesting.
The starter went out on it, I think around 130,000 miles, and my parents'
house used to be kind of on top of a hill, and so I would perk it just a
little over the edge of the hill, and I'd get in the car and then write it
down and pop the clutch, and I did that for about six months until one day it
didn't start at the bottom of the hill, and the next day I got the starter replaced.
I love that.
Well, that requires field thinking about your destination, right,
and how you were going to get back, right?
Yep, exactly.
Well, if you're in a parking lot and it was flat, you could just put it
neutral and push it with your foot a little bit, and then get in the car
real quick and put it in second and pop the clutch.
Yep, yep.
Been there, done that.
Yep.
So are you an engineer by trade, Devin?
I am, I am.
Excellent.
Wonderful.
That's how I met Doug.
What color was the car?
What color was the interior?
Was there a trim package?
So I had the LX, which just meant it had, I think, a row
well, row pealess entry, and it had a spoiler, but it had hubcaps instead
of rims, but they were nice hubcaps.
I mean, it was, I wouldn't say it was a no frills, but somewhere in between
no frills and, you know.
Got it, got it.
Yeah, it had a kind of a, it was hunter green and had this like
cream color interior.
Love that color.
Yeah, I mean, I would totally buy it.
Like if they made the equivalent of that car today, I would totally buy it.
I mean, that thing is awesome.
Well, I think there is a Mazda 6, which would probably be as close as you can
go.
Yeah, but I don't know if they're making that.
I actually looked and they don't, the problem is they don't make it
as thick anymore either.
That is true.
So I take it you got the car used.
I did.
I got it like, I think 18 months used or two years.
I had like 34,000 miles on it when I bought it.
Nice, nice.
So yeah, you put about 250,000 miles on it.
That's a long time to have a first car.
So curious as to what was your next car after that?
And if you, what did you think you learned from the first car when
you're moving into the second, maybe even into the third?
Well, so my second car, I got married and we moved out into the DC area
and I was commuting in the Metro every day.
So unfortunately, that meant that I didn't need it.
And I actually didn't have a car for two years.
Yeah.
My wife and I shared a car.
It was a Toyota Corolla, which meant she drove it and I took the Metro,
which was fine.
It was a very practical thing.
But the next car I had was a Audi A4, which was also fun.
Sport.
Yeah, yeah, I had turbo in it.
I love that.
That was awesome.
So what led to you moving from the Mazda to the next car?
Well, so driving on the Metro with a stick shift or not,
driving on the Beltway with a stick shift every day,
it was a little hard on the knees.
That was part of it.
And it was, I mean, it was getting to the end of its life.
I mean, I did all the things I could to keep that thing going
and it was starting to turn into a little bit of a might need
to get the engine rebuilt.
And the car wasn't worth that much at that point.
So I ended up donating it to a charity who auctioned it
and made actually decent amount of money on it.
And I did find out that the new owner fixed it
and was driving it for several years.
The guy reached out to me a question about something.
How you got my info?
I have no idea.
Excellent.
That's a great story.
So I think I heard you mentioned spoiler,
but were there any features on either of these cars
or any other car that just like blew you away, right?
We talked about the stick shift, like.
Well, the Mazda, yeah, the stick shift was nice,
but the Mazda had a unique thing that the vents in the middle,
like the front vents, you know,
so there's one on the driver's side on the left,
kind of near where the mirror is
and the one on the right on the passenger side.
But the mirror, the vents, the air vents
in the middle actually oscillated.
Like there was a push button that you could turn it off,
but you can leave it on, it would oscillate left
to right.
I think I remember that.
I remember that.
Yeah, it was cool.
Yeah, that's cool.
Did it have any, was it digital?
Did they have a digital dash?
Like, I know that was more of an eating thing.
No, it was analog, no, it was an analog dash.
Now, did you know your wife when you had that car?
I did, I did.
We went to high school together.
Oh, okay, nice, nice.
So lots of significant times.
Did you have your, your first,
did your first child ride in that car
or was it gone by then?
No, no, it was gone by then.
Gotcha.
Did your family tend to keep cars for a long time?
Yeah, yeah, I mean, my family usually hangs on to them
until they're kind of done.
I would say in the last couple of years,
I've gone through cars like Skittles,
so we'll not use that as a proper barometer, but.
Love that.
What's your daily driver these days, Devin?
I know you said going through cars like Skittles.
I am currently driving a 2003 Cadillac Escalade V Series.
Goodness.
Yeah, I love it.
It's, it's nice.
It's, it's a nice family car.
How did you land on that car?
I needed a bigger vehicle because if we, you know,
if we drive back to the little Illinois,
which is like 13 hour drive,
if my kids are touching each other
in any way, shape, or form,
like it's like the end of the world.
And it has captain's chairs
and it's got lots of room on the inside of it.
And so it prevents me from wanting to murder
my adorable children.
So you have, and you have three kids,
so you got to spread out.
I do, I have three kids, so that's part of it.
Yeah, I've got three kids also,
and that breaks the symmetry in so many ways,
you know, big and small.
So it's interesting how, you know,
I'm shopping for a car right now
and you look and think about a sedan,
but it's that, it's that last dimension of height
through the back of the vehicle
that makes it so much more versatile.
And even as my kids are sort of phasing out
and moving into the world, I'm a little bit older than you,
the ability to haul things around
really does become a great proxy
for where you even start looking at cars.
So.
Devin, is it a, is it one of the extended length ESV?
No, I didn't, I didn't do the extended,
but I did get the full V-Series
that has the supercharged V8 in it.
Yeah, I saw, I saw a video of that
on Doug DeMiro's YouTube page the other day.
Yeah, pretty impressive car.
So what, besides the captain's chairs and the space,
is there any like knockout feature?
I watched the video, there's some cool,
cool things that that car can do.
Yeah, well, I mean, this one does have a refrigerator in it,
which is kind of cool, so I can pull out a bottle
of refrigerated ice water right here.
But other than that, it does have this cool button
that's like you turn the V-Series on,
and when you do, it makes the engine like crazy aggressive.
So even if you're slowing down at a stoplight
and you turn it on, the engine will like,
you'll hear the over blow of the supercharger,
you know, spinning down, and so it'll make it like,
I don't know, bark, I don't know what's the right word with me,
but I mean, it just sounds aggressive as can be.
And if you go to start it up with the remote start
and you're in a parking garage,
as one would do in this area,
like it will make the whole parking garage
just like get really loud, set off alarms and stuff.
So I just started the car, I wasn't thinking of it.
I was with my family and there was a woman
getting in her car like 20 feet away
and I was a good 100 feet away or so.
And I pushed the remote start
and it caused this lady to jump like two or three feet.
And I forgot that it's so loud when you do that.
But I mean, it is very loud when you were both started.
It's kind of fun.
Fantastic.
Hey, we're at right under 15 minutes here.
So in our closing moments,
any aspirations for next cars,
big thoughts on next cars, Devin?
What's your next venture?
Or are you pleased with what you have?
You seem to be a guy that hangs on the cars for a bit.
What's the next move?
What do you think?
So I just bought a 1965 Shelby Cobra.
I bought a back draft.
So it has like, you know,
the minimum amount of miles on it,
but it's basically a 1965 replica.
And this thing is absolutely gorgeous.
It's a five speed with a 427 Roush.
It's got 550 horsepower.
I am so excited to get this thing.
It's coming next week.
I've wanted this car for as long as I've ever wanted anything
in my life.
So I'm very excited to get it.
So I also have a 1965 Ford Mustang convertible.
So I have a pretty full garage.
And both of those are stick ships, right Devin?
Both of those are stick ships.
Yeah.
The Mustang has a four speed and the Cobra's five speed.
Nice.
Well, I look forward to driving those cars.
I mean, seeing you in them, that's what I meant.
You can drive it.
I don't mind.
Would love to have those up on the site
if he'd be willing.
I mean, they're beautiful.
I've got pictures I can send to Doug.
Even a picture of the garage would be fantastic to have.
Well, you've been a great guest, Devin.
Thank you for making the time,
especially for the inaugural first pilot episode.
Thank you for the time.
You got it.
Thanks guys.
Thanks buddy.
You got it man.
And sure you check us out on carslove.com,
carslove.com, throw out the intake form
if you're interested in joining the conversation,
being a future guest.
You don't have to be a car enthusiast.
Just be willing to tell your story.
Take care.
We'll see you around the ethernet soon.
About this episode
The pilot episode kicks off with hosts Chris and Doug welcoming Devin, a friend and car enthusiast, to share stories about his first car, a 1998 Mazda 626. Devin recounts the challenges and triumphs of learning to drive stick, maintaining the car for over 12 years, and the memories tied to it. The conversation touches on the significance of first cars, the transition to a family vehicle, and Devin's excitement about his recent purchase of a 1965 Shelby Cobra replica. Listeners will appreciate the personal anecdotes and the nostalgic connection to automotive history.
Devin takes us on a nostalgic ride through his automotive coming-of-age. He shares how learning stick-shift on a humble Mazda 626 sparked a lifetime love of cars, from wrenching on a modded Toyota Corolla to finally roaring in a Cadillac Escalade V. Along the way, Devin recounts restoration stories and classic car adventures, including the purchase of a thunderous Backdraft Cobra replica. Listeners will learn how each car – beloved or battered – taught life lessons and fueled Devin’s passion for automotive culture and car history.
Expect a heartwarming journey filled with first-car memories, family road trip tales, and the emotional resonance that every gearhead’s story brings.
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